Topic 3.8 Notes – Political and Social Cleavages

What Political and Social Cleavages Are

A cleavage is an enduring internal division in society that becomes politically relevant. It matters when it shapes voting, parties, patronage, protest, policy, legitimacy, or conflict.

Main types:

• Class divides people by income, wealth, occupation, education, and opportunity.
• Ethnicity divides by ancestry, language, culture, race, or indigenous-settler identity.
• Religion can divide different religions or groups within one religion.
• Territory divides center and periphery, regions, nations, or places with uneven development.

What makes a cleavage political is inequality. If a group has less power, fewer services, weaker language rights, less land, or less recognition, the division starts affecting how people relate to the state.

Reinforcing and cross-cutting

• Reinforcing cleavages stack on top of each other. The same groups are divided by ethnicity, religion, region, and class all at once. Conflict is more likely.
• Cross-cutting cleavages split people one way on one issue and another way on something else. That creates shared interests and can reduce polarization.

In democracies, cleavages often show up in elections and party systems. In authoritarian states, they often come out through patronage, protest, underground groups, religious institutions, exile groups, or separatism.

The Six Course Countries and Their Main Cleavages

China is a good place to start because some of its cleavages are easy to picture geographically, especially in Xinjiang and Tibet.

• China
  Han majority vs 55 recognized minorities. The biggest examples are Uighurs in Xinjiang and Tibetans in Tibet. These are ethnic, religious, and territorial cleavages at the same time. China also has strong coastal vs inland and urban vs rural development gaps.
• Iran
  Shi’a Muslim majority vs Sunni Muslims and recognized minorities such as Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. The Baha’i face persecution and lack equal recognition. There is also a Persian majority vs minorities including Azerbaijanis and Kurds.
• Mexico
  Indigenous Amerindian groups vs whites and mestizos, plus a major north-south regional divide. In the south, ethnicity, class, and territory often reinforce each other.
• Nigeria
  More than 250 ethnic groups. You need Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo. The north is mostly Muslim, the south more Christian and animist. This is the clearest reinforcing-cleavage case in the course.
• Russia
  Ethnic Russians, often tied to Russian Orthodoxy, vs non-Russian minorities. The key example is Chechens in the Caucasus, who are predominantly Muslim.
• United Kingdom
  Territorial and national cleavages among English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish. In Northern Ireland, Protestants/unionists and Catholics/nationalists divide over identity and the state. There are also white vs non-European minority tensions tied to colonial history.

Autonomy, Separatism, and Where They Show Up

Autonomy means more self-government within the state. Separatism or secession means independence from the state.

• Separatist movements
  • China: Xinjiang and Tibet
  • Iran: Kurdish separatist or armed autonomy movements
  • Nigeria: Biafra and the Nigerian Civil War, 1967-1970
  • Russia: Chechnya, including the First and Second Chechen Wars
  • UK: Scottish independence movement and the 2014 referendum
• Autonomy without full independence
  • Mexico: EZLN Zapatistas in Chiapas, focused on indigenous rights and self-government
  • UK: Welsh devolution, plus wider devolution in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland

How Governments Respond and Why It Matters

Governments usually move through the same chain. A cleavage becomes political, the state responds, and that response affects legitimacy and stability.

Main responses

• Accommodation includes minority recognition, reserved representation, devolution, federalism, power-sharing, and autonomous regions.
• Coercion includes surveillance, detention, forced assimilation, repression, and military force.
• Governments also use cleavages politically by appealing to majority nationalism, religion, or unity.

Country examples

Accommodation can increase buy-in and reduce violence. Repression can create short-term control but weaken long-term legitimacy. Terrorism and extremism can grow out of long-standing cleavages, like Boko Haram in Nigeria or separatist violence in several states. China also uses claims about extremism to justify repression.

Big Comparisons to Lock In

Nigeria vs Mexico

Both have ethnic and regional cleavages. Ethnicity matters more in Nigeria because major groups are larger, more territorially concentrated, and more tied to religion and colonial regional divisions. In Mexico, mestizo national identity and more localized indigenous identities reduced nationwide ethnic-bloc politics.

Regime-type pattern

Democracies like the UK rely more on elections, devolution, and power-sharing. Authoritarian states like China, Iran, and Russia give fewer open channels, so cleavages show up more through informal networks, protest, separatism, and repression.

Best exam chain

1. Identify the groups.
2. Name the cleavage type.
3. Decide if it is reinforcing or cross-cutting.
4. Explain how it becomes political.
5. Explain the state response.
6. Link that response to legitimacy, citizen relationships, and stability.